All Blacks: Time short for 'ss' Joe

Joe Rokocoko. Photo / Getty Images

When Joe Rokocoko goes in search of inspiration these next few weeks, he might find Madonna, the queen of pop, the perfect role model.

No one knows how to reinvent themselves better than the original material girl. Hers is a career that may never end, such is her ability to morph into the next coolest thing.

Big Joe needs to do some morphing. Fast. The All Black selectors want him to play his way back into form. They have this belief game time will be the spark that ignites what was once the most explosive cocktail.

"He would not be pleased with his form," said Graham Henry in justifying the selection of Rokocoko to play Italy.

"He is a proven international in the past, and we are hoping that he will find the magic button and start producing it.

"So it is another opportunity for Joe to get back to his old self and to gain a bit of form and he can't do that by not playing.

"He was a superstar, he had a couple of injuries and hasn't come back to it yet and we are hoping he finds ss [super-stardom] again."

But that feels more like wishful thinking; it's maybe even a mis-reading of what they have with Rokocoko.

His success was built on one main thing - raw pace. That's a pretty special commodity but it's also fragile. He wasn't a David Campese. Rokocoko never possessed quite the sleight of hand or the trickery of Campo.

He didn't need it. He had a turbo button that enabled him to get on the outside shoulder and take off.

How could we forget Rokocoko in full flight at the Millennium Stadium a few years back? Welshmen were forlornly chasing him and then that hint of a kick, a dummy, a swivel and a glorious try. It was magic. It was Rokocoko at his best. It was a different Rokocoko, though.

He even looked different. There was a lean sharpness to his frame. Those monumental thighs were a little less so. Back then, he was more of an athlete; he had that litheness of youth; that angular edge nature bestows only on the young.

What he's gained in the last few years isn't explosive bulk. It's just bulk; an anchor that drags him back; forces him to think more about travelling over rather than around obstacles.

The conditioners dismiss this, convinced they are building an explosive athlete. But Big Joe hasn't gone 'boom' for a long time. Injuries have played their part.

Every bump and muscle tear have robbed him of the tiniest piece of fast-twitch fibre; pushed him into longer gym stints replacing natural suppleness with something manufactured. Something bigger and harder to shift into fifth gear. Something that, basically, isn't what he was a few years ago, hence the need to reinvent himself.

He won't be the player he once was or find top-end pace again. He'll still be quick, just not quick enough to be a game-breaker on speed alone.

To keep his All Black career alive, Rokocoko needs to provide something new. As Dougie Howlett did before him, Rokocoko needs to tighten his work under the high ball.

He needs to be a big game hunter on defence. He's big and brave enough to make memorable hits; to become the kind of explosive defender that jolts the ball loose; that makes blokes like Bryan Habana wary.

His work rate needs to come up. If he goes looking for the ball, even if he can't break the line or rip open like he used to, he could make space for others.

Essentially, Rokocoko needs to morph from finisher to provider.